Wednesday, October 19, 2005

BUMPED Torture

I'm bumping this because I don't think this can get enough attention, and I've added a few thoughts....again.

UPDATE II:

Having had some time to sleep on the show, I'm left with a deeper sense of shame and anger.

For those who have followed the torture story, the PBS show did not really offer too many new revelations....until the end. But in the usual Frontline fashion, the a, b, c, d, sequencing of the events in arriving at today is devastating to the administration and Pentagon. Anyone who ever doubts that top administration officials are involved in promoting and demanding torture as a policy would have a very difficult time ignoring the facts, and sequencing of facts presented in the program.

The money news in the story was the very brave Tony Lagouranis (mentioned below in the promo). He's an extremely credible and articulate witness to current torture routinely implemented throughout Iraq.

One story told by Lagouranis was particularly damning. He described how a prisoner is put in bathtub-like containers with ice water. Rectal thermometers are used to regularly monitor the prisoners body temperature to keep them just above hypothermia....until they crack.

I really really try to not be subject to hyperbole. But as I said below, there's no doubt in my mind that the administration players involved in these policies are war criminals.

BUMPED and UPDATED:

I watched it...probably while most of America watched something important like Survivor.

I'm so depressed.

Someday, a lot of people are going to be very ashamed of their actions. Rumsfeld and Bush are war criminals (along with Gens. Miller and Sanchez, John Yoo, Gonzales, Ashcroft and any number of other players) and should be held criminally liable.

Being an American used to mean something good. I don't know how it can be anything but stained after our behavior of torture. And aside from the morality question, a whole bunch of Americans will pay for these deeds given the new standard we have set.

If you missed it or want more information, as usual, PBS will put the whole thing up to download and has extra information on the website. It really should be required watching......

-------------------------------------------------------------

I think that torture is the single worst thing for which Bush is responsible. It's a legacy that will take eons to cleanse. Please watch this tonight, if you can stomach it:

BOSTON, Oct. 17 /PRNewswire/ -- Another American soldier has come forward to reveal abusive interrogation techniques by military personnel in Iraq. Tony Lagouranis, a former Army interrogator at Abu Ghraib and member of a special intelligence team in Iraq, has given FRONTLINE a firsthand account of his involvement in the harsh treatment of prisoners.

"It's all over Iraq," Lagouranis told FRONTLINE. "The infantry units are torturing people in their homes. They would smash people's feet with the back of an axhead. They would break bones, ribs. That was serious stuff."